Elsa and the Winter Wish
by YourGreatestDream
Summary: Elsa makes a wish, a brother saves his sister from thin ice, and two years later they get pulled into an adventure of harsh winds, cursed magic, and friendship. Cursed by the ice magic that struck his heart, Jack finds that he's slowly getting weaker. Can Elsa find it in herself to love him before it's too late?
1. Introduction: A Single Wish

**Intro: A Single Wish**

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><p>"Do you want to build a snowman...?" thirteen year old Anna said on her side of the door, behind which Elsa slumped with shivering arms around her knees.<p>

The older princess stayed silent, trying desperately to keep in the shock and sorrow off her parents' deaths. Every time she thought of their kind faces and how they did everything they could to help her, the room grew colder by several degrees. Icicles hung from the ceiling, frightening the young teenager with the sharp lethal tips that threatened to fall down on top of her. Patterns of ice and frost reached out from her, her fear inciting more power to be released and causing cracks to pop and creak in the frozen thorns above.

"Stop! Just...stop..." The princess buried her head in her arms, curling up against the door.

A gentle light and a gust of wind drew her eyes from hiding, attracting her attention towards the now open window, where the remnants of a winter gale lingered in flurries of white snow drifting around the opening. Moonlight gleamed and moved inside the room in rays as though to comfort her. And for a moment, it did.

The white-haired princess got up and walked over to the open window, the wind coming in to rush through her braided hair, but she wasn't cold from it. Elsa took a heavy gasp of air, her loss making her eyes burn with fear and sorrow. Looking out, she saw the full moon beaming down at her in the dark night.

Her face breaking in grief, Elsa let a tear fall down her face, the drop turning to ice before it shattered on the window sill. A wish on her lips, she took in a short breath and addressed the moon.

"Please, I need help." Her voice broke at the end and she wet her lips before trying again, "I need someone I can be with, have fun with ... someone that I can't possibly _hurt_. I wish I could be understood...please. Help me..."

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><p>Far away a boy stands on top of a thin layer of ice, stick in hand and worry in mind. He had to distract his little sister from the cracks under her skates. Succeeding in making her laugh, he reached out and counted with her to three.<p>

_I have to save her._

"One.." He hooked the stick around her waist.

"Two," his sister said, grabbing hold tight.

"Three!" Jack threw her aside to safety and away from the thin ice, and in turn he was stumbling toward the cracks.

_I have to save her._

The ice gave in, his last memory being of his sister crying out his name before frozen waters claimed him, pulling him in. Icy claws had firm hold around his chest, and he couldn't break free. Ice cold water entered his every pore, chilling his bones until he could no longer feel it. The fire in his lungs dimmed, becoming a faint ember in the throws of the dark frozen lake.

His last breath gave out, and just as the burning cold water entered his lungs he saw a white light from above. Moonlight filtered in from the ice surface, lighting upon his pale face. In his last moment of life he felt something, a need to save someone.

_I have to save...her._

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><p>AN: Sorry it's so short. This is just the intro. Next chapter our story begins! Tell me what you think of it so far, reviews make me happy :)


	2. Chapter 1: You Can See Me?

A/N: I know a lot of these stories have been done to death, so if you don't want to read it, you don't have to. I'm just trying my hand at a proper, Disney setting. But adding in my own quirks. This one is for all you Jelsa fans who are longing for that one special fiction that truly brings the realistic Jack and Elsa together, while keeping the main Frozen plot alive. I hope I do this story justice.

Disclaimer: I don't own Frozen or Guardians.

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><p><strong>Chapter One: You Can See Me?<strong>

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><p><em>Two Years Later<em>

The storm raged with icy sleet and snow. The winds roared unchallenged over the cold mountain bordering Arendelle, where a boy with white hair and a brown cow-hide leather cloak tried to steady himself on the wind. His attempts against the current failed, leaving him to blow away like a stray leaf, hurtling into the cold abyss of the night.

A large crack sounded as the boy slammed into a tall dead tree, it's sharp branches tearing at his clothes as he fell to Earth. His cries of brief pain were lost in the ferocious gale.

The final impact was softened by a large pile of dark snow. The boy frowned. It wasn't like his snow; fun, packable and fresh as a morning breeze. This snow was damp, frozen and cold as ice in a frozen tundra. It clung to his tunic like a leach onto its victim, and was determined to pull him under into its cold embrace.

The cold didn't bother the boy though. Brushing off the stubborn slush, Jack Frost panicked before he looked around for his staff. Finding a third of it sticking up out of the snow, he quickly unearthed it and breathed a sigh of relief.

The winter spirit jerked his head up in surprise as a sleigh sped passed, with a horde of shadows closing in on it. Two voices reached his ears over the flying wind. Taking off into the wind in chase, Jack kept low to the ground to prevent being knocked away by the strong gusts again.

Catching up, he saw a man and woman in the light of a lantern, the traders sleigh being pulled by a very panicked reindeer.

"What are they?" The young woman with bright brown locks braided back with a streak of white asked.

"Wolves." The man held the reigns and urged the equestrian to go faster.

"What do we do?" The girl asked, a strength in her voice keeping her calm under the dangerous circumstances.

"I got this, just..." The guy took a torch and used the lantern to light it before going to the back half of the large sleigh, facing the wolves. "...don't fall off and don't get eaten."

"But I want to help!" The girl looked back and attempted to climb back along with him.

Jack flew behind the stragglers of the wolf pack, and frosted four wolves' feet until they could no longer run. Unfortunately, that left about a dozen more.

"No, I don't trust your judgement." The man said.

"Excuuuuse mee?" The girl responded, clearly irked and danger forgotten for the second.

"Who marries a man she just me-t?" The man said, the last word strained as he kicked a lunging wolf off the sleigh.

"It's TRUE LOVE!" The woman picked up a ...ukulele?... and scared the man to death before hitting the wolf behind him.

One of the wolves jumped at the wagon and managed to get the man's arm, throwing him off. His torch caught by the girl, she reached out to him and missed. The man grabbed hold of a rope attached to the sleigh as it continued to rocket over rocks and frozen snow. He held on tight as he was dragged alongside the running wolves.

"Christopher!"

"It's _Kristoff_!" The man shouted back in irritation.

"These two need to get a room." Jack muttered to himself, freezing two more wolves before they could latch onto the man.

The girl touched torch to sleeping bag, lighting the large quilt ablaze before holding it up high.

"Duck!"

"Ahhhhh!"

"Huh? _What the flaming bundle?!"_

The blazing bundle was thrown over the man to hit two more snapping wolves that took the place of the ones Jack froze. He had to swerve in the air to dodge the rolled up quilt-of-death himself.

"You almost set me on fire!" Both Kristoff and Jack exclaimed. But Jack, being the spirit that he was, wasn't heard.

The young woman pulled the man up by the rope with startling strength. "But I didn't!"

With the man back aboard the sleigh, the two faced forward once more. Only to find a large gap in between two cliffs, the farther one almost fifty feet away.

Jack saw it, and flew faster, his eyes narrowing in his determination to see these two people safe. He wouldn't have time to bridge the gap, but he would do what he could to help them cross.

"Get ready to jump Sven!" The girl shouted.

"You don't tell him what to do. I do!" The man said, grabbing the girl and tossing her onto the reindeer's back, taking out a knife before cutting the lines connecting the deer to the sleigh. "JUMP SVEN!"

Jack searched for whatever strength he had left inside him and summoned a wind to help carry the creature and rider across the canyon. The sleigh flew unguided, falling back as the man used its projection to leap the rest of the distance.

But he was short by five feet.

Plummeting to the craggy depth below, Kristoff felt fear encompass him before an unseen force slowed his decent. To his astonishment, he felt himself being lifted back up to the snowy ledge where a distraught Sven and Anna waited.

"Wait, w-what?...You were...f-falling..." Anna hiccuped, her eyes wide in disbelief.

"I don't know." Kristoff landed safely on the cliff ledge, where a highly emotional reindeer bowled him over and licked him from head to toe, happy his friend was alive.

"Hehe. Hey, Sven. It's okay!" Kristoff smiled and held his hands out in surrender. "I'm okay, you can relax now."

Anna looked over at the wolves on the other end. The pack snarled viciously; cheated out of their dinner they sulked back into the forest from which they came.

Suddenly the snow to her right indented, without anything on top of it. The shape was that of a body on its side, curled up with its arms out loose and it's legs slightly bent softly.

"What in the world?" Anna whispered before investigating the anomaly. Just as she reached out to touch the indented snow, her hand brushed against a solid figure and both she and Kristoff jumped back in surprise.

What once was an empty indentation of crystal white snow, was now a boy with white hair curled up in the snow unconscious.

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><p>Jack had tried to grab the man before he fell, only to have him slip through his intangible hands. Hating himself for thinking he could help hands-on without being believed in, he asked for the wind's help once more. However, the wind was of no use in a cavern such as this where the air was trapped between two daunting cliffs. As a last resort, Jack had to reach into his heart and pull out his own magic, transferring it through the staff in order to make his own wind, enough to hold up over a hundred and ninety pounds of ice-breaker and lift him ten feet up and back to safety. Summoning all that updraft of wind sapped his strength until he could barely lift himself back up to where the strange trio where.<p>

He saw the world tipping around him before he felt the familiarity of snow beneath him...or was it on the left like a wall? No, now that he realized it, the world didn't tip. He did.

The muddled incoherence of direction was the last thing the spirit tried to puzzle out before exhaustion overtook him in a wave of black sleep.

Once clarity started to break into his soft and sleepy world once more, he began to hear voices around him.

"It's too weird. People don't just flash into existence."

"You think he's like the quee- I mean, your sister? Do you think it was 'magic' like her summoning the endless winter?"

"Don't look at me that way! Do you see anyone else coming up with ideas here?"

"Hey, watch that! That's my lute you're swinging!"

Jack let out a groan. Why wouldn't those two just shut up and let him rest? Funny enough, the moment he made a noise the fighting stopped, lapsing back into silence.

"He's waking up."

"I can see that!"

Jack felt a hand on his cheek pulling his head to a side, and he strained to open his eyes. Wait, a hand on his cheek? Physical touch?!

His eyes shot open in fright and he jumped away with a scared shout from the two hovering people...who were staring at him. AT him. Not through him.

_What?_

"Who are you?" The man - Kristoff, Jack remembered - got straight to the point.

"You can see me?" Jack replied, his voice quaking a bit. Two years. Two cold and lonely years that no one could see him, touch him, or hear him. What changed?

The girl's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. "Of course we can. Why wouldn't we?"

Jack's mouth opened and shut like a gaping goldfish. Shaking his head he smiled as a great wave of relief washed over him. He was no longer alone.

"So, are you going to tell us who you are or are you going to keep picking your jaw off the ground like a loose limb?"

"Kristoff!" Anna exclaimed.

Jack laughed, and wiped a stray tear as it leaked from the corner of his clear blue eyes. "Sorry, I'm just... wow. It's been too long. ...I'm Jack Frost."


	3. Chapter 2: Now That is Ice

A/N: Finals week is coming but I'm posting anyway. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: You know the drill.

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><p><strong>Chapter 2: Now That's Ice<strong>

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><p>"So your sister caused this storm?" Jack said, repeating back what he had been told.<p>

From waking up to going through introductions, a snow storm had picked up and they had to find shelter. That came as a relief to Jack, as he didn't know if he wanted to tell them about his powers yet. The three of them were now holed up in a cave somewhere not too far from the cliffs. Since most of the man's cargo fell off the cliff with the dearly departed sleigh, Kristoff had to build a small fire without flint and steel; a skill he was apparently very capable of seeing as his hands deftly rubbed a stick down against wood shavings and straw piled atop a log with a thin indent running through it to ventilate air.

Just like that there was a spark and then with a bit of coaxing, a warm fire.

Anna huddled towards the fire, letting her hands soak in the warmth. "Yeah, I know. Crazy, right?"

"Not at all." Jack smiled. Anna blinked at his response, befuddled.

"You're not surprised? Astonished? Or experiencing any aversion whatsoever?" Anna raised a sceptic eye brow.

"No. Why would I?" Jack stated before letting a charming grin flash across his face. "It's not every day you come across magic."

Through the roaring winds outside the cave, Sven the reindeer came trotting in with a bundle of wood carried on top of his antlers. The reindeer panted from the exertion and with a tilt of his head, dropped the firewood to the side of the cave before dropping like a sack of potatoes next to Kristoff. The man in the wool hat patted his companion and offered him a carrot.

"Well, that's why we're here." Anna declared. "I'm going to talk to my sister, and bring back summer."

Jack nodded. He'd like to see this other person who could use ice magic.

"Speaking of which, why are _you_ on the mountain?" Kristoff asked.

"That's easy." Jack smiled. He didn't want to give too much away. So he kept the fact that he had frost magic on hold. It sounded kinda strange, but he didn't want them freaking out about him turning the continent into ice as well. "I got lost."

"Wow, you must have a worse sense of direction than I do!" Anna said, her eyes wide. "How did you end up lost enough to find yourself on a snowy mountain far away from civilization and any signs of life?"

"Um...I guess I just went wherever the wind took me?" They had no idea how true that statement was.

"Seems like the storm passed. We should get going. The sun is just past the noon line, we don't have long until nightfall." Kristoff threw snow onto the fire, dowsing the flames. Anna huffed in disappointment at her warm heat source being depleted.

"But that fire was so warm..." Anna coughed and changed her tone to make herself sound tougher than she actually was, "I mean, sure let's get to it! Ice and cold...yay."

Jack followed them out of the cave. Before long they were traversing through trees where the winds ceased. A quite and peaceful sight met the group, as they walked passed trees chiming with ice drops on the ends of their branches.

With the icy lake, the frozen three-step waterfall, and the white winter canvas the place was the most serene that Jack had ever seen. Walking by a few low hanging branches he held out a hand to have the willowy branches full of icy crystals cling together against his palm with a natural music that filled the air like bells. At his touch, they frosted over and began to glow blue and pink with the shine of the sun glancing off the frost in different angles.

Sven hopped around excitedly, getting his antlers all tangled up in the thin string-like branches.

"I never knew winter could be so...beautiful." Anna spoke in a soft voice as Sven caught up to them, his antlers full of adornments from the trees.

"Welcome to my life." Jack said quietly under his breath with a chuckle.

"Yeah, it really is beautiful isn't it?" Said a voice not to far from them that had the group's heads turning for the source of it. "But it's so _white_. You know, how 'bout a little _color_? I don't know, maybe some crimson, shartruce, oh how 'bout yellow..."

Jack stumbled when he saw the thing walk by him. Was that a...

"Wait, no. Not yellow. Yellow and snow? Brbrbl. No go." The thing laughed as he walked between the two humans; completely oblivious to their shock. "Am I right?"

"Agh!" Anna screamed and kicked the thing in the face, dislodging it's snow-packed head and making it fly into Kristoff's arms.

The head smiled at Kristoff, "Hi!"

"You're creepy." Kristoff noted before tossing it back to Anna.

"I don't want it!" Anna tossed it back to the guy.

"Woah, back at you." The head was tossed back.

"Please don't drop me." The head said.

Before Jack could say anything in the matter, the head was tossed at him and he caught it. The eyes blinked at him and he blinked back.

Something else that could see him. As far as Jack knew, it was a talking snowman, and it could see him due to them both having a similar affinity with ice, snow, frost and pretty much anything cold.

"Hello. I'm Olaf!" The snowman head greeted him. "And I like warm hugs!"

"Well you're not going to be doing much hugging in that state." Jack said before looking around for the body of the snowman. Finding it walking around heedlessly, he snatched it and put Olaf together again.

"Awe, thank you." Olaf raised his stick arms and looked down at his snowy self. "Now I'm perfect!"

"Well, almost perfect." Anna dug into her pack and brought out a carrot while the snowman got distracted talking to Kristoff. Without warning ahead of time, she shoved a carrot deep into Olaf's head.

"Oh, I'm sorry! Didn't mean to-"

"Whew! Head rush!"

"...Are you okay?" Anna ended her apology.

"Are you kidding me? I...am WONDERFUL!" Olaf threw his arms up in the air. "I've always wanted a nose."

Jack chuckled before coming closer as the magical snowman started fussing happily over his itty bitty nose and pushed the back of the carrot forward into the right spot. "There you go, that should be better."

Olaf gasped with a wide smile. "I love it even more now! Okay, let's start this thing over. I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs!"

Anna gasped. "Olaf?...that's right, Olaf!"

"And you are...?" The snowman said.

"Oh. I'm Anna." Anna pointed to herself.

"Uh huh. And who's the funky looking donkey over there?"

"That's Sven."

"Okay. And the reindeer?"

"...Sven."

"Oh, alright. Makes things easy on me. Is he Sven too?" Olaf pointed a stick arm in Jack's direction.

Anna laughed. "No, that's Jack Frost."

"Why can't I be Sven?" Jack joked.

Sven the reindeer tried to bite at Olaf's nose and missed. Olaf crooned, "Awe look at him trying to kiss my nose! I like you too."

"Olaf, did Elsa build you?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Do you know where she is?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Do you think you could show us the way?"

"Yeah, why?"

Kristoff got slapped trying to figure out how the arm-stick worked, "Stop it Sven! I'm trying to concentrate. Yeah, why?"

"We need to help her." Jack said. "And then bring back summer."

"Oh I love summer!" Olaf went on and on about the hot season.

_Someone's gotta tell him.._. Jack thought with a slow shake of his head, clutching his staff as they began moving towards their destination once more, following their walking talking snowman guide.

Soon, they strode into a stretch of mountain where sharp icicles grew at a menacing horizontal angle.

"So my ice business is riding on you talking to your sister?" Kristoff asked Anna.

"Uh huh."

Not having watched where he was going, Kristoff's nose was then prodded by the end of a very sharp and pointy slab of ice. He backed away slightly fear lacing his throat with nerves, "So you're _not at all_ afraid of her?"

"Why would I be?" Anna said cheerily.

"Yeah, I bet she's the nicest, gentlest, warmest person ever." Olaf, having done the same as Kristoff by not watching where he was going, looked down when he noticed his body was no longer connected to his legs. "Oh look at that. I've been impaled. Ha!"

Jack laughed too. He was impressed with the ice display, as the power behind such strong winds would have had to be beyond his own capabilities to make such sculptures of ice shards. It did make the spirit unnerved, however, towards the possibility that this sister may not be all that Anna was describing. Olaf did get impaled, after all.

Jack drifted forward to help Olaf slide off the spear of ice and back onto his feet.

Olaf lead them further to where Jack had to shake his head at his companions' antics as Anna tried to climb a cliff and - after Olaf found a bridge - play a crazy trust exercise with Kristoff.

Everything stopped though, when Jack saw the ice staircase leading up in a wide arc to the tall, beautiful castle glistening in blues, pinks and golds from the evening sun.

Resting atop the left side of the pristine snow-covered mountain, the structure glowed from the base foundation with a brilliant crystal light, where inner cracks and crevices broke in perfect symmetric design, creating outer walls that had measured intervals of clear, see-through ice and opaque ice. The towers rose in tandem with supporting beams that held up a railed balcony overlooking the mountainside, smooth and aesthetic in style.

"Woah." Anna breathed.

"Now that's ice." Kristoff soaked in the sight before him. "I think I might cry."

"Go ahead, I won't judge."

Jack, gripping his staff, flew up on the winds just a bit to land and walk along the rail of the staircase. Laughing at seeing the reindeer slip and fall over the steps, Jack marveled at the durability of the structure to withstand the movements of the large animal.

"Flawless." Kristoff said under his breath, examining the stairs.

Curious, and making sure he was behind the others and out of sight, Jack Frost leaned his staff out along the ice of the stairs and gave the part of raining ahead of him a little tap. Ferns of frost traveled in spirals all around place that had been touched with Jack's magic, embracing the ice magic already present and strengthening into ice-shaped fern designs. Laughing, Jack ran atop the rail running his staff against the side of the staircase, making both rails cover themselves in shimmering frosty crystals.

It was good to know that in the face of another kind of ice magic, Jack's had no trouble working the same it had always done.

Jack nodded, hopping off the rail to land at the front door soft as a feather behind the other three. The door to the castle was tall as an elder tree; two slabs of ice, crystal blue in iridescence and covered with a large, embossed snowflake spanning the door from the base to the top.

"Oh, you guys should probably wait out here." Anna suggested when they all caught up. "Last time I introduced her to a guy she froze everything. No idea how she's gonna take two guys at once."

"But, it's a palace made of ice! Ice is my life!" Kristoff threw his hands in the air at the castle.

_How do you think _I_ feel?_ Jack thought with stars in his eyes as he gazed at the frozen ramparts. _I wanna live here_.

"Just wait out here, please?" Anna pleaded. Jack and Kristoff huffed and their shoulders fell into a slouch.

"Fine." They both agreed half heartedly. Jack with his fingers crossed behind his back, and a smirk hidden in the corner of his lips.

Anna went to knock at the door and froze, her fisted hand in the air hesitant and shy.

"Knock. Just knock. ...Why isn't she knocking?" Olaf said to the side not-so-quietly. "Do you think she knows _how_ to knock?"

Slowly, Anna stepped forward and gave the door three solid knocks. Almost instantaneously after her third knock the ice-slab doors opened inward. Anna gasped and took a step back. Staring at the doors with rapt attention she laughed awkwardly and muttered, "It opened. That's a first."

"Bye Sven, Jack." Olaf said as he started walking towards the open door.

"No, you need to wait out here Olaf." Anna said. "Just give my sister and I a minute, alright?"

"Okay." Olaf said. Watching Anna walk through the doors he went down to sit with Kristoff and began counting the time till a full minute would pass. After he said "three", Kristoff joined in.

Jack, assuming Elsa wouldn't be able to see him, planned to sneak in behind Anna. However, he had a magic snowman and an ice cutter watching him. So, while they had their eyes looking away from him, he quickly used his magic to conjure a snow version of himself. He couldn't add color to it or make it come to life, but he could drape his cow-hide cloak over it's back to make it look like him sitting slouched forward while facing the door.

With no more time to waste, Jack then slipped into the palace on the wind and flew behind Anna. The princess felt a breeze and looked back, but nothing was there. Shrugging, she turned and started to call out for her sister. Jack, pressed to the ceiling in a quick effort to hide out of Anna's sight, let out a breath of relief, which quickly changed into a breath of wonder.

The entrance hall was amazing.

Jack smiled in glee at the sight before him. Wide ice cube pillars from floor to ceiling spanned two floors, the upper floor accessible via a curved wide staircase hugging the back wall. Just in front of the stairs on the second floor stood an open archway, no wait...that was a clear glass door! On the first floor in front of Anna was a beautiful fountain adorning the center of the large, empty room.

Jack's smile dimmed, and his expression turned serious and inquisitive. Something felt wrong about a room so grand being empty. If it was him, he would have chosen to furnish the place up a bit more. Ice mirrors, ice benches, snow-pillowed ice couches, tables and ice glasses to hold clear mountain water...yeah the place could have much more added to it. If this sister of Anna's could build such a grand palace, why would she not make usual comforts with it?

Why was it _empty_?

Jack slipped down behind a pillar as Anna's wondering gaze looked up to observe the white and blue patterned snowflake on the ceiling. He watched as she looked up towards the door on the second floor.

"E-Elsa? It's me...Anna." She said, slowly. Stepping forward and expecting the floor to be like all other floors, she lost balance with her foot when it made contact with the slippery ice it was truly made of. She held her hands out to steady herself and regained her balance.

"Anna?" Said princess in the purple overcoat looked up in surprise to see ...her sister.

Jack froze, his eyes widening. Jaw slack a bit, Jack pressed his back against the pillar, away from the side around which he'd been spying. Clenching his palms to shake off the nerves, he shook his head to rid himself of whatever it was that was filling his head.

"Woah, Elsa you look...different. It's a good different!" Anna held up a gloved hand in assurance. "And this place, it's amazing."

Taking another look, Jack was hit again with that feeling inside that made him light up like a sun. Anna's sister was beautiful. Elsa. Her name was Elsa. Wearing a long flowing blue dress of ice and magic, everything good about her multiplied tenfold. Her hips, her curves... everything. The queen's platinum blond if not flaxen white hair was down in a braid, hanging over one shoulder. Elsa's sky blue eyes shown with a recent-found confidence, her face round and soft as the petal on a white rose. Jack moved closer by a few inches to get a better look, not that he wanted to be closer to her somehow, he only needed to see a bit more since his vantage point wasn't that good. Yeah, that's it.

Jack was a terrible liar.

"Thank you." The queen's voice drifted down the stairs with ease as she herself looked at the work around her. "I never knew what I was capable of."

"I'm so sorry about what happened," Elsa backed up as Anna climbed up the stairs. "If I'd have known–"

"No no no, it's okay," Elsa held her hands out in a gentle gesture that suggested an effort to keep away from her sister. "Y-you don't have to apologize." The queen rubbed her hands together softly and looked away. "But you should probably go...please."

"But I just got here."

Jack walked out from behind the pillar, concerned. As he expected, the queen couldn't see him. He had a feeling she forgot how to believe a long time ago.

"You belong down in Arendale."

"So do you." Anna insisted.

"No, Anna, I belong here. Alone. Where I can be who I am...without hurting anyone." Jack couldn't believe his ears. How could such a power be feared so much by the one who possessed it? And Elsa looked so sad. That power was spectacular! It could help so many people, if only she knew...

"Actually, about that..." Anna was interrupted by Olaf's voice outside coming in.

Jack shot back behind the pillar.

"HI! I'M OLAF AND I LIKE WARM HUGS!" Olaf shouted across the room.

"Olaf?" Elsa said, puzzled as to how familiar that name seemed to her.

"You built me...remember that?" Olaf said sheepishly, his stick hands clasped together in front of him uncertainly.

"And you're alive?" Elsa asked, amazed.

"Um... I think so?"

"He's just like the one we made as kids." Anna said, lowering down to Olaf to take his hand.

"Yeah." Elsa said, her eyes shining as she remembered a joyful part of her childhood.

"Elsa, we were so close." Anna said softly. "We can be like that again."

Jack saw Elsa's happiness break away in the midst of fear. She folded her arms across her embroidered waistline, her posture shrinking away. "No, we can't. Goodbye Anna."

Elsa turned away to run behind the door and up another case of stairs.

"Elsa, wait!" Anna ran after her.

Jack stepped out from behind the pillar once they left.

"Hey! You! You slipped inside when you weren't supposed to." Olaf accused Jack. Before he could defend himself the snowman went on conspiratorially, "Don't tell Kristoff, but I thought that was fun. Tell me how you did it! Come on!"

Jack laughed and explained his simple trick. Kristoff came in a few seconds later, a bit peeved but not upset, and gave Jack his brown cloak back.

"You forgot something."

"Thanks."

Jack put on his cloak, welcoming the familiar weight on his shoulders.

"It's a nice tanning job on the leather. Where did you get it?" Kristoff asked.

"I don't know." Jack answered hesitantly, fingering the coarse fabric. "I've just always had it. What about you? How long have you had Sven?"

Kristoff smiled and looked up the staircase, taking in all the wonderful ice work around him. "Since I was four, oh look at that fountain! Perfectly symmetrical, hanging shards and glistening ice shavings like tensile..."

Kristoff's tangent on the ice palace became background noise when Jack felt magic levels rise in the air. Getting an ominous feeling from it, he gripped his staff tight and - checking that Olaf and Kristoff weren't looking - flew up the stairs, zooming passed the intricate details and rooms that weren't where the overwhelming magic he was sensing was.

Up the last set of stairs he flew, bursting into the room where a miniature snow storm was flying at high speeds. In the center of it was Elsa, tugging at her hair in distress. Anna was just inside the storm, trying to talk reason with her sister.

"Elsa! We can fix this thing together!"

Jack felt the magic ease back into a pressurized central point where Elsa stood. Knowing the magic would break it's containment and burst from all that dark fear, Jack ran to Anna.

"Get back, Anna!"

Anna looked back. But it was too late.

"I CAN'T!" Elsa shouted, the energy releasing itself from her in a wave of pure magic.

Jack pushed Anna out of the way, afraid that if he jumped in front of her, Elsa's magic would phase right through him.

He was wrong.

The queen's magic hit him full force in the heart, shocking him to where he bent down on his knees for air.

Her ice magic came in contact with him, because it was _magic_.

And magic recognizes magic.

The queen's magic familiarized itself with Jack's magic, and recognized him as a spirit of winter. After that attack, Elsa felt a jolt and turned around...to see a white-haired stranger kneeling on the floor holding his chest.

"Who are you?"


End file.
